http://nba.fanhouse.com/2009/11/04/van-gundy-nba-rules-penalize-howard/?ncid=txtlnkusspor00000002 "He gets penalized for being so strong. We give guys an advantage in this league for being quick, but we penalize them for being strong like Dwight,'' Van Gundy said after Howard finished with 11 fouls in the last two games combined. "If you hit a perimeter guy on a drive the way they are allowed to hit Dwight all the time around the basket, it would be a flagrant foul.'' The Magic pounded the Phoenix Suns, 122-100, Wednesday night and Howard had 25 points, but he played only 23 minutes because of early foul trouble. On Tuesday night, he fouled out after just 17 minutes in a loss against Detroit. Wow.... Howard was receiving worst calls than Yao... can you believe it!
Howard gets hacked hard more than any player in the NBA the last few seasons. I'm surprised he maintains his composure after what he puts up with. The NBA remains clueless about officiating big men.
A lot of those veteran referees have been officiating during the centers era(80s-90s). They know how to officiate the big men but the NBA asks them to make this a guard league!
Dwight Howard gets biased officiating for himself all the time, He and LeBron James don't get along, so my question is...Why is he acting like LeBron James?
The man averages almost 11FT per game since 2007 season. I mean seriously, what does he want 15, 20, 30.... Your not going to get all the calls, especially if you are that aggressive on defense going for the blocks. His post game consists of bulldozing to the basket with his running jumping hook. I can understand if he wasn't like top 5 in FTA in the last 3 years. But he was #1 in FTA attempts last year(849) and the year before with (897) His 897 FTA puts in him #20 at the all-time list for attempts, thats in good company of people like Wilt, Oscar, Mailman In his young career he has received over 3472 FT/game vs Yao 2968 FT/Game. Yao's been playing a year longer (granted he has more injuries. If DH continues to be #1 in FTA every year till age of 31, he is going to reach 8566 FTA attempts, which will allow him to pass The Dream, Allen Iverson, The admiral and close to MJ. I am not sure why he is complaining, maybe he wants the SHaq treatment, where Refs allowed Shaq to bulldoze people over. I know the game should be called correctly but if that was the case our own boy Yao is getting a bigger shaft, he may not be aggressive like DH but he gets a ton of non-call crap.
You need to watch him more if you aren't sure why he is complaining. His and SVG's complaints are totally valid. Nobody expects to get all the calls. But they miss them on Howard a ridiculous amount of the time. Yao got abused by the refs too, but not like Howard. Howard is a lot stronger than Yao and doesn't shoot FTs as well, which is why he gets abused not only more often, but the hits are more brutal. If Yao got hit the way Howard does, he would have missed a lot of games due to shoulder and arm injuries. This is just something big centers have to deal with because of how the refs call the games, but at some point common sense has to kick in and players should not be punished just because they are extremely strong. Just because a player can power through a hard foul doesn't mean it didn't hurt and it shouldn't be a foul. It also doesn't matter how many times a foul was called earlier in the game.
I watch DH games, please 11FTA is enough. DH doesn't avoid contact, if he wants to stop getting hit, than learn some post moves that doesn't involve bulldozing. He wants contact and gets his 11FTA per game. He needs to stop crying.
The league is more and more becoming a point gaurds league. Centers like yao and dwight get punished. It doesn't seem like any big man can stay in a game without getting in foul trouble. No hand checking, more steps after dribbles allowed, charges almost always go to the offender. It won't be long before they replace the free throw line with a trampoline.
Name a good player in the NBA that avoids contact inside while on offense. Yao used to avoid contact until he figured things out. The issue with Howard getting clobbered isn't because he initiates the contact. It's people hacking him on the hands, arms, shoulders, etc. It has zero to do with him "bulldozing". Full body contact isn't the problem. For players like Howard and Yao, it's a shame they aren't refereed fairly. Their "crying" is legit.
